UCF Homecoming Controversy: Make Way For Mike Kilbride’s Ego
Campus Beat, Editorials, Politics, Student Orgs, Tuition, UCF Administration, UCF Greek Life, UCF SGA — By Staff on October 20, 2010 at 1:52 pmUpdate: We got reports Kilbride once again inserted himself into homecoming, but this time didn’t show his face. We’re told he was “the man behind the curtain” — or something like that — and did announcing work during Skit Knight.
We also got reports Joey Femia, one the closest members of Mike Kilbride’s inner-circle, was also booed while on stage during Homecoming.
A KnightNews.com Editorial
UCF’s Homecoming week is supposed to bring students together, but this year it seems to be driving them farther apart than ever before. And at KnightNews.com, we think that’s a shame.
It was clear at Concert Knight that UCF students were not happy with SGA President Mike Kilbride, when KnightNews.com got text messages from students rejoicing that Kilbride was practically booed off the stage while he was soaking up the spotlight before Ludacris performed.
Sure, many students were upset with Kilbride over his repeated spending scandals with their money, such as the $8,000 he spent on a luxury weekend retreat at a five-star resort, and his recent purchase of a fancy new desk for the SGA office that’s worth more than the cars most students drive.
But there’s another reason Kilbride was booed so much at Concert Knight — he was once again forcing himself into a situation where he didn’t belong. Honestly, when you show up for a Ludacris concert, Mike Kilbride is about the last person you’d expect to see up on stage to get you warmed up. It’d be like taking a handful of sleeping pills right before running a marathon. It just doesn’t make sense.
Kilbride’s decision to put himself where he didn’t belong during Concert Knight shows he never learned his lesson after putting his cabinet where it didn’t belong — at a luxury five-star resort, courtesy of the students struggling to pay tuition, who can’t even stay somewhere that nice on family vacations.
But during Homecoming, it seems Kilbride has gone beyond making himself look bad. Now, sources tell us, Kilbride is inserting himself smack in the middle of the authority of the Homecoming Executive Board — another place where he doesn’t belong — and sparked a dangerous standoff that has put some of the professional staff at UCF protecting him in positions of being unethical and dishonest at best, and possibly breaking laws at worst. What a way to lead by example!
But by all accounts, the Homecoming Executive Board and its professional advisor, Kelly Sparks, is a group of hard-working students trying to make a difference at UCF. They dedicate countless hours to having a special week for students and alumni to enjoy. Unlike Mike Kilbride and his SGA inner-circle, we’re told the student directors of Homecoming do their work without a paycheck. Instead, their payoff is a successful event that UCF students, staff, alumni and neighbors come together to enjoy, like this one we covered below:
But as hard working and motivated as this team is, they are being deprived of one of the valuable skills they should be learning as student leaders — how to handle conflict and come to a compromise. That’s because, according to sources, Mike Kilbride’s administration is pressuring Homecoming to do whatever Kilbride wants, instead of letting the Exec Board decide matters on its own, without interference.
Homecoming King Controversy
Take for example the issue of Homecoming Court eligibility. We got tips that there is a candidate for King who doesn’t even have a 3.0 GPA. So, we checked it out, and guess what. For the first time we know of in history, Homecoming threw the eligibility requirements out the window for students applying for Homecoming Court. That’s right, what used to be one of the most prestigious honors at UCF, was now open to anyone, regardless of your GPA.
Of course many people who had a 2.9 probably never knew about the loophole, and didn’t bother to apply. Why does this matter? Because we’re told Mike Kilbride’s SGA Comptroller, Brian Peterson, who is the one who is supposed to be tracking Kilbride’s spending, has started his 7th year as senior at UCF this year, after coming to UCF in 2004. Clearly, you don’t become a 7th year senior by having a 4.0 GPA.
Was Peterson given special treatment? We asked him to share his GPA with us days ago, but he hasn’t gotten back.
But we do know the decision to throw the eligibility requirements out the window was justified by the fact that the application for Homecoming Court did not list the eligibility requirements on it. Instead, the eligibility requirements were listed on the rules packet, that anyone interested in court could have found here online.
Fraternities, sororities, the Honors Congress, LEAD Scholars, or any group that competes in Homecoming, got a hard copy of the rules package. To run for court, you need to be nominated by an organization. However, SGA is allowed to nominate people even though that group doesn’t compete in Homecoming. The argument for waiving the GPA rule was, that because a group like SGA never got a hard copy of the rules packet with the Court eligibility rules, Homecoming felt that they could not uphold the eligibility requirements. And everyone who turned in an application this year was considered for Homecoming Court.
We are waiting to hear back to find out if Homecoming took a formal vote on waiving the rules, or if it was just rammed through by some higher power who wanted to see it waived.
Either way, it appears the UCF Creed and it’s Integrity and Scholarship platforms have been trampled in favor of keeping someone with a lot of power over SGA and Homecoming happy. And that’s a shame for the 4th year seniors who may have worked 2 jobs to make ends meet, volunteered, and were leaders on campus, but didn’t apply for Homecoming Court because they knew their 2.9 GPA’s wouldn’t cut the rules — if Homecoming had chosen to follow them.
Skit Knight Videotaping Banned by SGA?
Another issue we’re told Homecoming Exec never got the chance to vote on was the issue of Mike Kilbride’s SGA trying to ban KnightNews.com from videotaping at Skit Knight. For some reason, we’ve learned SGA is opposed to KnightNews.com providing video coverage of the event which was so popular last year.
Do the students on Homecoming Exec who have been working so hard get to hear from KnightNews.com or students who enjoy our Skit Knight video coverage? Nope.
Had Dr. Maribeth Ehasz intervened after we asked that she do so? Nope.
Has anyone taken us up on our offer to use Dispute Resolution Services for mediation? Nope.
It seems like someone up there in SGA would rather this decision get made behind closed doors — in a place where decisions involving events student money pays for should never be made.
And for some reason, UCF professional staff are protecting this behavior. We have e-mails proving UCF professional staff lied, apparently to protect this behavior. If SGA won’t back off and list this ban on us covering Skit Knight, we’ll instead spend our time tonight detailing exactly what we went through in a news story — including retaining lawyers — to fight for you to see these videos you love so much. And we’ll publish every e-mail we’ve had with UCF on the topic so you can see for yourself how toxic, and ridiculous, this SGA Skit Knight Standoff has become to so many in the UCF community.
We’re hoping the Homecoming Executive Board gets together for a meeting to let KnightNews.com videotape Skit Knight, as students clearly want, or that someone in SGA comes to their senses to put a stop to this mafia-like government.
If we get arrested at Skit Knight tonight for videotaping, at least you’ll know why. Same goes for anyone in SGA, if a prosecutor we plan to forward everything we’ve uncovered believes Open Meeting and Public Record laws were violated.
We agree that the possibility a standoff over Skit Knight could come to criminal charges or ruin careers is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as Mike Kilbride introducing Ludacris.
Stay tuned…
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21 Comments
If they are saying something about Kilbride that isn’t true, I’d like to see someone point it out.
It seems to me like no one in SGA will answer the simple questions.
Did Kilbride use his influence to get his friend on court or did SGA have some group get together to nominate their friend?
Did Kilbride make the decision to ban people from Skit Knight, or did the students running Homecoming get to vote?
Being honesty and transparent will let people know if this is fair or not. Ignoring the media’s questions will cause you to destroy yourself — to call it cyberbullying is laughable.
You are absolutely disguisting. I do not care if he is a elected official in “public” office. Hes a student. Hes human. You arent destroying him because you want the “truth” or because you want to expose some sort of corrupt entity. You are destroying him because you are hurt and bitter and it has just turned into maliciousness. With everything going on in the news lately (THE REAL NEWS) concerning students committing suicide because of ridiculous, YOU’D THINK THAT YOU HAVE THE DECENCY TO TO WATCH WHAT YOU SAY. You are a bunch of pompous arrogant assholes who hide behind the title “staff” because you dont want to be ridiculed. Yet, you lay into other people and destroy them, destroy their futures by having lies and comments spread all over the internet about them. But this comment wont even matter. Because people like you, who didnt have a decent bone in their bodies to begin with, dont ever change. You try to change the circumstances to make it seem as though you are doing the right thing. You hide behind your website and your friends with your conjecture, but you’re just a bunch of bullies who cant grow up and cant move on. The only purpose of your main articles and editorials is to personally attack others. Not professionally, personally.
Karma’s a bitch ladies and gentlemen.
Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.
you keep doing your thing seeff these people are just dumb and ignorant
lol knightnews guys are such haters hahaha
Correction: Kelly Sparks is
Not their GA. She is a coordinator in OSI which means she already has her masters degree.
this guy spends our money, and then declines comment.. man up
Then dont read it!
nobody wants to hear your bull.
You’re absolutely right. My mistake.
Is Kilbride going to resign before someone impeaches him?
Just for the record: KoRT – Knights of the Roundtable – an agency that works with student organizations…. This article is referring to Homecoming Court… the students nominated for Homecoming King and Queen. “Wow” is actually right, it is Court not KoRT in this case.
Pretty sure it says editorial, which implies that it will be biased. We all know who works for Knightnews, so it isn’t like they are hiding. They’ll be the ones assuming they’re getting arrested tonight. Meanwhile, you’re calling out people by name on a comment board on a website for a paper you claim to disdain. You seem to only wish to be contrary. And yes. It is KoRT.
Of course Peterson has done more than anyone at knightnews…
hes been an undergrad for SEVEN YEARS!!! Bahahaha.
It is KORT not Court.
lrn2UCF
http://kort.getinvolveducf.com/
@WOW
For starters please de-friend me from Facebook
It upsets me when I hear, ‘Seef you lost, get over it,’ when I read stories about wasteful spending and corruption, like this one, the $8,000 desk, the iPads and a fancy retreat. I ran as a candidate for presidency to try transform SGA into an organization that has the students interests represented before the presidents own. I think Mike Kilbride is a great guy and his team, for the most part, is doing a great job which deserves recognition but the above mentioned issues are unacceptable and are not representing the students interests and money responsibly. I have gotten over the fact that I lost but as a student who contributes to ASF I like to see my money spent wisely, don’t you?. Had I been voted as president I can assure you this would have been done.
If the issues stated in this editorial are true, I don’t think they should be shoved on the back-burner. Students need to start standing-up to Student Government and make their voices heard! Knight News is doing an incredible job at informing the students about the dealings within SGA and thus making SGA more TRANSPARENT. Keep up the good work!
@Mike Kilbride, you are a dedicated and hard working president and I think you have the potential to turn SGA into a legitimate organization. Everyone makes mistakes, including me, and we learn from them and correct them in the future. It is a challenging year for SGA because no other news source had been exposing the corruption in SGA, which has been going on for years, as much as Knight News has. The most important characteristic of an effective leader is integrity, make sure that every decision you make is representing the students best interests, not yours or your friends. I wish you best of luck and hope not to see anymore upsetting stories like this in the future.
Keep up the good work Knightnews don’t let SGA get away with this.
Peterson is graduating this semester and I guarantee you hes done more at UCF than any of these other KnightNews fools.
Oh and by the way, he’s got a 3.0 GPA. So Suck. On. That.
YOU GUYS HAVE NO LIFE
NO ONE CARES YOU LOOK SO STUPID
@wow. You talk about putting names on the articles but you yourself dont put yours? Why through Daniel Seef into this? Are you afraid of his good looks and beautiful accent. Whether or not the article is 100 percent factual that fact that Knightnews is not allowed to video tape is illegal, especially if Central Florida Future (run by USA Today and for profit) is allowed too. Unlike Peterson i will be leaving UCF this coming semester. I hope that before i leave the corruption will end and SGA will finally have its established and trusted reputation back.
To the comment above its Homecoming COURT….not KoRT.
Knightnews’ articles are usually really awful…..but this one just takes the cake. This is the most biased thing I have ever read. They dont even have real facts! Kelly Sparks is the advisor, not the grad-student assistant. How do yo expect people to trust your articles, if you cant even get simple facts straight?!
Daniel Seefs status at this very moment is “transparency, transparency, transparency…” Seef you lost, get over it. Stop trying to have your Knightnews’ friends bring down something that is better then you. Kilbride is and forever will be a better person for the job than you ever would be. Hell…..Logan Berkowitz probably was better.
If the scumbags who worked at knightnews were really brave, they would put there names on the article. Instead, they hide behind a default signature that says “Staff” Are you afraid of being known as a liar.
Stein and Cliff Jett: yall are the disgusting. And when you requested that the awful, and not to mention racist, “El Corral Song” be played last night at Comedy Knight…I boo’d! And I was not the only one.
The students are tired of Knightnews trying to break our Community (one of the five elements of our creed). Stop being bitter
There are reasons you will NEVER see the truth like this in the Central Florida Future – they on SGAs payroll and dont want to ruin that relationship, they are scared. Knight News is finally filling that corrupt void in exposing the corruption and bureaucracy within SGA. Good for you guys!
I was on the homecoming exec board two years ago and remember the process to get onto KoRT. Its was EXTREMELY selective and a massive privilege. They would have never let someone with a 2.9GPA onto it. This is a disgrace
I know Knight News have written some factually incorrect stories before and I never supported them but coming form being involved with homecoming before and knowing Mike personally I believe this story and im disgusted.
Do you think this lack of INTEGRITY has always been going on and it just wasn’t exposed because Knight News wasn’t around or just Kilbride on a ego boost?